1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cloth roll driving apparatus for winding a cloth fed from a weaving machine around a cloth roll.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
As disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication H5-25742, it has been usual that a cloth fed from a weaving machine is wound around a cloth roll and after the cloth has been fully wound around the cloth roll, the full cloth roll is replaced with a cloth roll having no cloth wound thereround (hereinafter called an empty cloth roll). In this case, in order to allow the top end of the cloth to be wound securely around the empty cloth roll, the empty cloth roll is rotated faster than usual by means of a motor for allowing the cloth to be taken up by the empty cloth roll thereby preventing the cloth from being wound around the empty cloth roll in a state in which the top end of the cloth is loosened with respect to the roll. The empty cloth roll driving motor is provided separately from the weaving machine driving motor and the two motors are coupled to the cloth roll rotating shaft through gear mechanisms, respectively. The gear mechanisms are arranged such that a one-way clutch mechanism is interposed between the gear mechanisms and the gear mechanisms can slip relative to each other with respect to their rotation in a predetermined direction.
Consequently, the empty cloth roll mounted at the cloth take-up position is rotated faster than usual so that the top end of the cloth is securely wound around the empty cloth roll. In this case, the rotation effected by the weaving machine driving motor is transmitted to the cloth roll shaft but the rotational velocity difference between the two gear mechanisms is absorbed by the one-way clutch and the gear mechanisms are not influenced by each other. Then, when the end of the cloth is wound around the empty cloth roll, the motor for rotating this roll ceases to rotate and due to the torque from the weaving machine driving motor, the cloth roll is rotated slower than when the cloth is wound around the empty cloth roll. In this case, the rotation of the gear mechanism coupled to the empty cloth roll driving motor is interrupted by the one-way clutch arranged therebetween so that no torque is transmitted to the stopped empty roll driving motor.
However, the above-described conventional cloth roll driving apparatus has had the disadvantages that the apparatus requires a device for driving an empty cloth roll to replace a full cloth roll in addition to an apparatus for driving a cloth take-up roll so that the overall structure of the cloth roll driving apparatus becomes complicated and large-sized resulting in an increase in the manufacturing cost.